SCHOOLBOY Oscar Hughes and his family have raised £6,500 for a children’s cancer charity since he had a brain tumour removed earlier this year.

The final phase of the Dunnington family’s current fundraising drive came when Oscar’s mother, Marie, and a group of other women took part in a relay version of the Plusnet Yorkshire Marathon in York last month.

Marie said their run, coupled with a marathon relay organised by Oscar at Dunnington Primary School, in which all 237 children and 15 staff members each ran about 190 metres across the school playing fields to complete a collective 26.2 miles, raised about £3,500.

She said another £3,000 had been raised through a balloon sale organised by Oscar at Dunnington Fair in the summer.

“The relay was absolutely amazing,” said Marie, who ran 3.2 miles in 31 minutes.

“We came second out of the women’s teams.”

She said Oscar, eight, who recently won a Child Of The Year award at the York Community Pride ceremony, had inspired people to come forward and support the fundraising drive.

“He is just inspirational. The doctors say he is a superstar,” she said, adding that Oscar had just completed the fourth out of eight cycles of chemotherapy treatment needed following his 11-hour operation.

Meanwhile, Oscar’s older brother Sebastian, ten, has followed in his footsteps by becoming a mascot for Manchester United.

Sebastian accompanied Robin Van Persie on to the pitch at Old Trafford last weekend, prior to the team’s win against Arsenal, two months after Oscar was mascot against Crystal Palace.

Marie said Sebastian had been hugely supportive of Oscar throughout his long spells of treatment, and she and her husband Ian had wanted to treat him to something as well.

She said Oscar was doing very well and was now looking forward to a trip with his father to Lapland next month, along with other young patients, as guests of the Wish Upon A Star organisation, to meet Santa and go on a husky ride.